[acb-diabetics] CGM, curse or blessing

[Patricia LaFrance-Wolf]

Continuous Glucose Monitoring: The Joys and Pains


Rachel Garlinghouse
Jul 1, 2011 

"Good news," my diabetes <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/>  nurse educator
says to me. "Your new insurance covers continuous glucose monitoring
supplies!" I give her a half-smile as my brain screams at me, "CGM
<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/products/cgms/> ? Really? Something
else to deal with on top of this damn disease, an insulin
<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/products/insulin-pumps/>  pump,
exercise <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/fitness/exercise/> , and
nutrition?" But I comply, and a CGM is added to the rest of my
paraphernalia.

A few nights later, I hear, BEEP, BEEP, BEEEEEP! The sound of failure alarms
me at 2:00 a.m. My blood sugar
<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/monitoring/blood-sugar/>  is high.
Again. I get up, test, inject, guzzle a glass of water, and flop back into
bed. Thirty minutes later, my CGM alarms me again. And it continues every
half-hour until my blood sugar returns to a normal range. I wake up for the
day already exhausted.

Right after breakfast and before I head to the gym, my CGM beeps again, this
time alerting me to a low
<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/complications-and-care/low-blood-sugar
/>  blood sugar. I look at my pump and it displays a threatening number, 82,
alongside two double arrows indicating that my sugar is dropping quickly. I
sigh, test, roll my eyes, and gulp down half a glass of grape juice. And
then, every ten minutes for thirty more minutes, my CGM yells at me, daring
me to attempt to work out. 

CGM technology can be wonderful. I have avoided nights of extreme highs
(sleeping in a comatose state of sugar-induced bliss) and driving my car
during dangerous lows. I have been able to better control my diabetes. My
A1Cs <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/monitoring/a1c-test/>  are
usually better when I've been using my CGM. But, in all honesty, sometimes I
just don't want to know. I want to live in oblivion. 

The CGM also has what I consider to be a high rate of error. While my pump
may report my blood sugar is 130, it could very well be 80 and dropping.
Sometimes my blood sugar is normal when the CGM says I'm low. I might be in
the middle of an enjoyable moment, such as dinner
<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/food/dinner/>  with friends, when the
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP interrupts the conversation to alert me that again, I might
not have great control. Stop. Test. Sigh. Correct (or not). Try to be happy
again. Try to be normal.

Syringes <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/products/syringes/> , a pump,
a CGM---while these are all important to diabetes management, they are not a
cure. Not even close. I dare say that sometimes, life is harder rather than
easier with greater technology. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Of course,
good diabetes management is important, and technology helps one obtain
better management, but there is always a cost: a "BEEP" during a special
moment, a bad pump set that prevents you from enjoying your own birthday
cake, or the occasional sting of a syringe that reminds you that you are
not, in fact, anywhere close to normal. You have diabetes. Your life is
different---forever and always. 

I will only have peace when there is a cure---a cure that works and that
doesn't compromise my ethics. I hope and pray for a cure, but meanwhile, I
try to live my best life possible by doing what I know I'm supposed to:
eating well, exercising, pumping, and listening and responding to the
insistent beeps of my CGM.

  _____  

Categories:A1C
<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/complications-and-care/a1c/> , Blood
<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/complications-and-care/blood-glucose/>
Glucose,  <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/monitoring/blood-sugar/> 

 

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